Question Regarding the Bird of Prey

I'm confused as to why the series refers to both romulan ships and klingon ships as "The Bird of Prey."

Is "The Bird of Prey" supposed to be the name of a particular ship, or is it a type of ship? Do romulans and klingons just happen to use the same type, or are the two species working together? And, how did both groups come to develop a cloaking device that the Federation apparently didn't have the science to develop?

I'm confused as to why the series refers to both romulan ships and klingon ships as "The Bird of Prey."

Is "The Bird of Prey" supposed to be the name of a particular ship, or is it a type of ship? Do romulans and klingons just happen to use the same type, or are the two species working together? And, how did both groups come to develop a cloaking device that the Federation apparently didn't have the science to develop?

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IIRC, the Romulan ship in "Balance of Terror" was never referred to as a "bird-of-prey." Stiles stated that Rommie ships from the Earth-Romulan war had birds painted on their undersides (which ENT showed that they didn't, but that's another story...), but no Rommie ship (or Klingon ship for that matter) in TOS was ever referred to as such. It wasn't until The Search For Spock that the term was used. Of course, originally the Bird-of-Prey was supposed to be a Romulan ship before the script got changed to Klingons being the adversaries, but by that time the term and ship had already forever stuck to the Klingons.

However, the terms "bird-of-prey" and "warbird" have been so jumbled together between Klingons and Romulans that they're pretty much interchangeable these days

The implication now is that the aliance the Klingons and Romulans had way back during the third season of TOS (The Enterprise Incident) made for the Klingons to have cloaking technology. I don't remember if they gave them any in Enterprise. As for the Federation not having any, canonical evidence states that the "Treaty of Algeron" forbade the Federation of developing a cloaking device.

It's quite possible that the bird motif is a Vulcan thing, and that the Klingon ships are known as "Warbirds", "Birds of Prey" and "Raptors" in ENT because that's how the Vulcans have classified them and how they have been described for Vulcan's Earthling allies. The native Klingon designations might be far less poetic - perhaps the "battle cruiser" and "attack cruiser" designations used for some of their designs are closer to the native ones?

This Vulcan bird fetish would arguably have survived on those Vulcans who emigrated to become Romulans. But the fact remains that the only Romulan ship design to have an avian designation is the TNG era "Warbird". There is no Romulan Bird of Prey in canon, nor a Romulan Raptor or Buzzard...

It could also be argued that bird motifs are common among starfaring cultures. Starships may look like flying ships to us Earthlings - but others may simply see them as flying things, without the awkward watery connection.

Personally, I prefer to think that Vulcans/Romulans had the bird motive first, and infected it on us humans in the 22nd century - and that ever since those times, the designation "Bird of Prey" has gained a very specific meaning, perhaps that of an atmospheric-capable assault scout (something Starfleet doesn't have), while "Warbird" has become a similar special term, perhaps with the meaning of an Explorer-sized or larger warship (which Starfleet also apparently doesn't have).

That's how current naval designations were born, too: one nation's sometimes nonsensical or sentimental terminology caught on abroad, so that suddenly everybody had "destroyers" for WWI or "frigates" after WWII.

The implication now is that the aliance the Klingons and Romulans had way back during the third season of TOS (The Enterprise Incident) made for the Klingons to have cloaking technology.

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Hmh? In ENT, Klingons were the first shown receiving the secret of that tech, in "Unexpected". Romulans were shown possessing the tech quite a bit later, in "Minefield". It may originally have been somewhat likely that there existed an alliance that gave Klingons cloaking tech - but current evidence may actually be against such an alliance ever having existed. The Klingon tech in Romulan hands in "The Enterprise Incident" may have been war loot for all we know.

As for the Federation not having any, canonical evidence states that the "Treaty of Algeron" forbade the Federation of developing a cloaking device.

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...And canon doesn't establish when this treaty was signed. We only know the Feds and the Romulans were signatories, so it has to be after the first encounter with the latter. And it has to be before the early 24th century, because Picard argues the treaty has kept the peace since then. But the signing date could well predate TOS.

Wait, ok, so The Search For Spock was wrong, or inconsistent with the series? I will say, when I said "the series" I meant to include the films; I can see why for clarity's sake they are being referred to separately.

In "Balance Of Terror" Stiles says that Romulan ships are painted like giant birds of prey (or something to that effect. Hence, the term stuck even though neither the Federation or the Romulans refered to the ships that way. Note that in some novels some writers made references that the Romulans thought of their ships that way, and why not(?), because they consciously did paint their ships that way.

TNG's Romulan ships were actually more consistent with this idea than TSFS. But by then the damage was done.

Wait, ok, so The Search For Spock was wrong, or inconsistent with the series? I will say, when I said "the series" I meant to include the films; I can see why for clarity's sake they are being referred to separately.

Since the term was never used in TOS to describe the Romulan ship ( only its markings) calling the Klingon ship in TSFS is not 100 percent wrong or inconsistant. The implication from Stiles comment is that every Romulan ship seen in the Romulan War had this marking. Its unlikely that all Romulan ships were of the same design. Its an "national identifier" like a red star on a Soviet aircraft. It reflects the ships origin not its type.

OTOH the type ship seen in TSFS may actually be called "Bird of Prey" in Klingonese as well as some other alpha-numeric designation. From a visual standpoint it looks more like a Klingon design anyway. Romulans might also have ships they call "Birds of Prey" in their language. Ditto for "Warbirds". Perhaps thats why such terms use qualifiers like "Romulan" or "Klingon" when mentioned in Federation Standard.

Since the term was never used in TOS to describe the Romulan ship ( only its markings) calling the Klingon ship in TSFS is not 100 percent wrong or inconsistant.

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Nor is the concept that no one on the bridge of the Enterprise ever took a dump because everyone in the future has their anus sewn shit. But we really should interpret TOS in the light of the intention of the writers, not twist, spindle and mutilate it to be consistent with later writings.

Since the term was never used in TOS to describe the Romulan ship ( only its markings) calling the Klingon ship in TSFS is not 100 percent wrong or inconsistant.

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Nor is the concept that no one on the bridge of the Enterprise ever took a dump because everyone in the future has their anus sewn shit. But we really should interpret TOS in the light of the intention of the writers, not twist, spindle and mutilate it to be consistent with later writings.

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The intent of the writers is that Romulan ships have birds painted on them. Not that the ship is called a Bird of Prey.

The real reason had partly to do with the first quote and nothing to do with the second. But mostly it had to do with economics.

The Romulan vessel model was only ever used in "Balance of Terror." Any subsequent episodes where it was featured was just stock footage from BoT.

For whatever reason, they did not have possession of the model by the beginning of the third season, but they had just budgeted for the building of the Klingon Battlecruiser. However, the first episode of the third season televised was "The Enterprise Incident," and they needed three Romulan ships for that. There wasn't enough in the budget to build yet another model right after the new battlecruiser, so they basically used the new Klingon ship and added a vague line to the script saying that the Romulan were using "Klingon designs." It's as simple as that.

Wait, ok, so The Search For Spock was wrong, or inconsistent with the series? I will say, when I said "the series" I meant to include the films; I can see why for clarity's sake they are being referred to separately.

Since the term was never used in TOS to describe the Romulan ship ( only its markings) calling the Klingon ship in TSFS is not 100 percent wrong or inconsistant. The implication from Stiles comment is that every Romulan ship seen in the Romulan War had this marking. Its unlikely that all Romulan ships were of the same design. Its an "national identifier" like a red star on a Soviet aircraft. It reflects the ships origin not its type.

OTOH the type ship seen in TSFS may actually be called "Bird of Prey" in Klingonese as well as some other alpha-numeric designation. From a visual standpoint it looks more like a Klingon design anyway. Romulans might also have ships they call "Birds of Prey" in their language. Ditto for "Warbirds". Perhaps thats why such terms use qualifiers like "Romulan" or "Klingon" when mentioned in Federation Standard.

It was a popular "fanon" idea in the 90's that Klingons got cloaking devices and Bird-of-Prey ships in exchange for giving the Romulans battle cruisers.

Star Trek XI featured Klingon D7's decloaking during the Kobayashi Maru test in 2258, and surrounding the Nerada a 2233 deleted scene.

Enterprise gave the Suliban cloaking technology from the 27th(-ish) century. It also retconned Romulan cloaking tech from "scary and new" in TOS to "they always had them" in 2152.

Klingon ships being called "Warbirds" was supposedly a mistake in Enterprise, despite their winged design. The term was used again in STXI.

Oh, and there's an old-style Romulan Bird of Prey hidden in the background of the Nerada's giant landing area, along with the Vulcan ship from First Contact.

So: the words "Battle cruiser", "Bird of Prey" and "Warbird" are pretty much interchangable for Klingon and Romulan ships.

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I think you fellows nailed it. It's obvious that in TSFS, the Klingon ship is called a "Klingon bird of prey." I would assume that on Q'onos, they have birds of prey, so it's entirely legitimate. Also, it's never stated that all Klingon ships are called, "bird of prey," just the design seen in TSFS and in other ST shows.

From TSFS, we know that Klingons use the differentiating term, "battle cruiser" to describe Enterprise, and probably Klingon ships of similar size and firepower.

Also, I'd say the phrase "warbird" might be a synonym for "bird of prey" to both Romulans and Klingons.

This is a case of behind-the-scenes inconsistency -- which makes me wonder how either Christophr Lloyd or Edward James Olmos would've looked in Romulan makeup -- but it doesn't mean the phrases can't be reconciled. I have no problem with it.

Also, I'd say the phrase "warbird" might be a synonym for "bird of prey" to both Romulans and Klingons.

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Actually, since those terms are used in parallel, and never for the same ship class, I'd suggest there's a very definite difference between them - just like there's a difference between "destroyer" and "cruiser".

Birds of Prey might be at the smaller end of the ship spectrum for any given era, while Warbirds are the absolute top predators. And Raptors could be small torpedo boats with even more limited capabilities than those of a Bird of Prey. This would hold for all eras of Klingon warship design, and for all eras of Romulan warship design, although of course a Warbird from the 22nd century would probably be smaller and weaker than a Bird of Prey from the 24th, and a Romulan Warbird might be stronger or weaker than her Klingon equivalent at any given time. But the choice of terminology would depend on the speaker, and the listener, and the interpreter...

(A Soviet skipper from the 1970s would not have spoken of "destroyers" in his native language, but an interpreter might have turned the word he used into English in several ways: "squadronship" if he insisted on perverting the guy's words into the literal translation of the pre-Soviet term for destroyer, "destroyer" if he insisted on perverting the guy's words into the NATO equivalent for the vessel type, and "large ASW ship" if he agreed to a truly literal translation. The English listener would choose what he wants to hear based on his profession and background, too.)